Lesson planning is very important and is something I am trying to improve on throughout my PSII. During my PSI I noticed that a majority of my lesson plans were almost too detailed and would serve more as a script than a plan. Although I did not bring my lesson plan up with me when teaching, I ensured that I knew my main points I had to make and ensured that every important aspect was said. While I believe this shows a level of professionalism as I always want to be as prepared as possible, it may have led me to follow my plans too much and be uncomfortable with change. Teaching changes everyday. Some days the students can sit and listen for thirty minutes then work hard for another thirty; some days, asking students to sit for even four minutes is too much. My PSII. Grade 2/3 Montessori placement has encouraged me to encourage students to learn through hands-on activities, working with their peers and making mistakes. As my PSII continues I am noticing myself writing detailed lesson plans, however, they are now focused on how I will ensure my students are meeting their learning outcome, and not so much on the presentation of the lesson. I am learning how to feel the room and recognize when my students may not be able to sit much longer listening to my instructions, and I can begin the activity and go around helping those who need it. I also am learning the valuable skill of how to turn a majority of my instruction into questions for the students to think about and answer. Instead of saying to students "a centimetre is a standard unit of measurement" and showing them on a ruler, I will ask "what do we know about centimetres? What is a centimetre? Can someone show me how they might find the measurement of a centimetre?" These simple actions of turning instructional speaking into questions has allowed me to formally assess students while teaching them, as when I ask "who knows what a centimetre is?" and I see only a few hands, I know that this is something I will need to focus on today. I am also becoming more comfortable with not finishing everything I wanted to do in a lesson. If my plan was to introduce students to millimetres, centimetres, and metres in one class but students need to focus their energy on learning only one unit, that is okay. Below are some of my math lesson plans, worksheets, and activities from the two units I completed on measurement and fractions.
Reflection of my PSII Math lesson plans: I am proud of the work I did throughout my PSII with my math lesson plans. I am not a math major and did not have any prior experience with the Math Program of Study, so I was nervous about taking on two math units in my PSII. I was unable to complete my fractions unit due to time, however, I learned a lot in creating my plans for both units. In the future I will aim to create more of an in depth week-by-week plan of what I will be teaching in order to ensure I stay on track and am confident that I have properly taught all outcomes to the best of my abilities. In conclusion, my two math units were very well planned and I feel confident in saying my students met their learner outcomes. Having the opportunity to teach a core subject so different than my major has given me lots of time to learn, reflect and grow as a teacher and I am confident in teaching Math, which is something I did not think I would be as capable of doing.
While planning and teaching my measurement unit I noticed some students were having trouble understanding the difference between non-standard units and standard units of measurement, as well as the difference and correlation between millimetres, centimetres, meters and decimetres. Incorporating song into my math lessons gave my students an opportunity to remember the concepts I had taught them through the repetitive song. Many students who had trouble understanding centimetres and millimetres were more confident after listening to the Eslam Academy 11-7 Centimetres and Meters song. I also began my measurement unit with Judy and David's The Day all the Rulers Disappeared song and then played The Day all the Rulers Reappeared as we learned about millimetres, centimetres and metres. Students enjoyed the songs and sang along to them, which helped them remember the concepts we had learned about. Incorporating music into my lessons is something I enjoyed doing as I saw the way it helped struggling students, and was a fun dance break for students who may have been getting bored going over repetitive content.
Having the opportunity to be a student teacher in a Montessori classroom has allowed me to think more critically about the way I give instructions to students and the different ways I can teach them. Throughout my math lessons I tried to do minimal instruction time, and give students the opportunity to work hands-on with what we were learning about in order to try it first hand and independently work through the problems. Throughout my measurement unit we have made clay snakes twice, and measured them using both non-standard and standard units. Making the snakes out of clay allowed students to enjoy their math class, while also experimenting with different measuring tools in order to find out how long and wide their snakes were. Using the clay snakes was a hit with the students and allowed many students to grasp the concept of measuring with non-standard units or rulers and do it correctly. Below are some photos from our second math class using the clay snakes.